Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Oregon Archdiocese reorganization plan calls for $75 million settlement
Jan 7 2007 // Settling nearly 170 claims of priest sex abuse would cost the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., about $75 million under a reorganization plan proposed to end. The plan represents the first bankruptcy in the...
Absence of hurricane losses proves beneficial to insurers’ bottomline
Jan 7 2007 // News Currents Driven by a sharp decline in catastrophe losses from hurricanes and other natural disasters in 2006, the U.S. property/casualty industry posted a $24.4 billion net gain on underwriting through nine months....
QBE to Acquire Winterthur US from AXA for $1.16 Billion
Jan 5 2007 // In separate announcements, Australia’s QBE Group and France’s AXA SA said they have reached an agreement for QBE to acquire Winterthur’s US operations, principally General Casualty and Unigard, for...
S&P Comments on, QBE-AXA-Winterthur US Deal
Jan 5 2007 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services indicated that its ratings on France’s AXA Group, including Winterthur Swiss, and Australia’s QBE won’t be affected by the sale of Winterthur’s US-based...
Wis. General Casualty, Unigard Acquired by Australia-based QBE
Jan 5 2007 // Sun Prairie,Wis.-based insurer General Casualty, its U.S. holding company and sister company Unigard Insurance Group in Bellevue, Wash., are being acquired by Australia-based QBE Insurance Group in an agreement with...
BB&T Completes AFCO, CAFO Acquisitions
Jan 3 2007 // BB&T Corporation (NYSE:BBT) subsidiary Branch Banking and Trust Company completed its acquisition of insurance premium finance company AFCO Credit Corporation and its Canadian affiliate, CAFO Inc., from Mellon...
Reinsurance Rates Falling or Flat, Except on U.S. Wind Exposures, Willis Reports
Jan 2 2007 // Reinsurance rates for the property casualty industry are falling or flat, except for insurers with major property wind exposure along the Gulf and East Coasts in the U.S., whose rates are still rising. That is one key...
Despite 2004 Ruling, Mexican Truck Travel Still Limited
Jan 2 2007 // Mexican trucker Brigido Moctezuma lives in a city just south of Mexico’s border with Texas, far from talks on whether he’ll be able to drive his loads of vehicle air bags all the way to assembly lines in...
Study: Health Care Costs in La. Rise Faster Than Paychecks
Dec 29 2006 // The costs of health insurance for a Louisiana family are rising much quicker than paychecks are growing, a new report says. From 2000 to 2006, the health care premiums for Louisiana’s families grew nearly five times...
Munich Re Warns Insurers Against Nat Cat ‘Complacency’
Dec 29 2006 // While recognizing that economic losses from natural catastrophes were considerably lower in 2006 than in 2005, Munich Re warned the industry against becoming too complacent. In a bulletin on the reinsurer’s web site...
China Life IPO Expected to Raise up to $3.6 Billion
Dec 27 2006 // China Life Insurance Co. says it will set a price this week for an initial public offering on Chinese markets that could raise up to 28 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion; euro2.8 billion). The company would become the first...
13 States File Briefs Against Credit Scoring in U.S. Supreme Court Case
Dec 27 2006 // Delaware Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn has taken arguments against insurance industry use of credit scoring to the U.S. Supreme Court, filing a brief in a pending case involving the practice. Denn recruited 12 other...
Absence of Hurricane Losses Proves Beneficial to Insurers’ Bottomline
Dec 27 2006 // Driven by a sharp decline in catastrophe losses from hurricanes and other natural disasters in 2006, the U.S. property/casualty industry posted a $24.4 billion net gain on underwriting through nine months. The net gain on...
U.S. Movie Studios Win Copyright Case in China Court
Dec 26 2006 // Five U.S. movie studios have won a court case against a Beijing shop accused of selling pirated copies of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “War of the Worlds” and other titles, the Motion Picture...
Hawaii issues captive license to MHC Insurance
Dec 25 2006 // The Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Insurance Division has granted a captive license to MHC Insurance Co. Ltd., which participates in insuring the worldwide risks of its Japanese-related owners and...
Global warming represents watershed event for insurance industry
Dec 25 2006 // At various points in history — the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930s, urban riots of the 1960s, and terrorism today — watershed events or trends ushered in structural changes within the U.S. insurance industry....
2006: Agents fight to keep their pay and insurers wise up to the future
Dec 25 2006 // The fight to save contingent commissions topped the minds of agents across the nation as a few select states drove public policy efforts to end their use by insurers. The industry grabbed hold of predictive modeling and...
Global warming represents watershed event for insurance industry
Dec 25 2006 // At various points in history — the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930s, urban riots of the 1960s, and terrorism today — watershed events or trends ushered in structural changes within the U.S. insurance industry....
Global warming represents watershed event for insurance industry
Dec 25 2006 // At various points in history — the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930s, urban riots of the 1960s, and terrorism today — watershed events or trends ushered in structural changes within the U.S. insurance industry....
Changing Reinsurance Rules
Dec 25 2006 // In March, Lloyd’s Chairman Lord Peter Levene finally got the attention of U.S. regulators. At a meeting in Florida, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners agreed to set up a task force, chaired by...
